Juniper design

any ideas would be greatly appreciated. this is the 3rd summer in this pot and great new growth this summer. i rescued it from a fuel station refurbish, with permission.

hi,
a few more years of heavy feeding, clipping off strong extension growth and trying to get some buds back on the long bare branches will give loads of options for a more upright tree.....or a nice cascade could be started now using the longest branch as the dropping one and building the crown from the section with all the strong growth.

cheers Marcus

Marcus in your post https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t10546-the-concertina-5ft-juniper-to-17, looks like you bent some big diameter branches. How's that happen?

Ricky Keaton wrote:Marcus in your post https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t10546-the-concertina-5ft-juniper-to-17, looks like you bent some big diameter branches. How's that happen?

Hi Ricky.

yes, the middle section of the trunk was about as thick as my fore arm before i started. the early pictures were 1997-2000 when it was straight - i put the tip of a chainsaw through the trunk longwise and cut the center out, so the 2 living strips were either side of the long hollow. I waited a few years and broke the upper strip so the lower section had to support all the foliage.

Now there was only 3/4 of an inch of thickness - 4 x 6mm wires were laid along the strip side by side, the entire lot wrapped in raffia and i made the first big bend , about 170 degrees i guess ! - the upper branch bend was just a case of cranking the trunk back on itself with a strong wire tied round it - every week or so i'd bend it some more and twist the wire tight. it was about an inch thick and bent over 4 or 5 weeks.

after this the tree was left alone for a couple of years while i played about with other stuff, until today

in my rigida - 'branch to trunk' thread i bent a really old second trunk about 4cm thick from below vertical to upright using a turnbuckle attachment - really easy, only took 5 minutes a day for 2 days

hope this helps a little,

best regards Marcus